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In 1946, singer-songwriter Merle Travis wrote the song “Dark as a Dungeon” to describe the harsh and dangerous conditions that coal miners experienced every day. American musician, singer-songwriter John Mellencamp recorded a special version of the song in support of From the Ashes.

Where to Watch

AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
From the Ashes is available for purchase on Amazon, iTunes, GooglePlay, Hulu, and other digital platforms, as well as on DVD.

BROADCAST PREMIERE
From the Ashes premiered in the United States on the National Geographic Channel on June 25th. If you reside outside the United States, please check your local listings or visit nationalgeographic.com to view the schedule.

Support Coal Impacted Communities

Let’s help coal communities as America makes the transition to cleaner energy. Join Bloomberg Philanthropies in supporting organizations working with communities and workers left behind by the coal industry to create local solutions to economic diversification. Local organizations creating diverse, resilient and sustainable economies in coal regions deserve your support. When you make a donation on CrowdRise to Coalfield Development Corporation, the Just Transition Fund, and the Western Organization of Resource Councils, Bloomberg Philanthropies will match a portion of the donation and cover all transaction fees.

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Move America Beyond Coal

Join Bloomberg Philanthropies in supporting the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign to secure the retirement of half of the nation’s coal fleet by the end of 2017. The Sierra Club is currently on schedule to meet this goal and continues to make progress despite politics in Washington. The initiative is one of the most effective campaigns to cut carbon emissions in history. It will help the United States speed up the growing shift seen among communities, ratepayers, investors, utilities, and state and local governments to move away from expensive, outdated power plants and towards clean energy solutions.

This country made a promise in 1947, that they would guarantee health care and pension benefits to coal miners if they would work in these here coal mines. Now, we fulfilled our promise. We’ve done it. And a hell of a lot of us died doing it.

The warming by the end of this century could be as high as 5 or 6 degrees Celsius. It would be warmer than it’s been since the dinosaurs were dominant more than 65 million years ago, and it’s not clear whether the human endeavor could survive in such a world. It’s now a question of whether we can control which direction it goes, so we can go into a climate friendly world, instead of a climate inferno, basically.

As a region, we’re not ashamed of powering this country for a hundred years. We’re proud of that and we should be proud of that. But I think that we’re waking up to the realization that if we’re going to survive, we’re going to have to adapt.